High waters delay start of Hudson River dredging

Jason McKibben, The Post Star / AP PhotoFrank Englese, left, and Guy Drouin navigate Friday back to dry land in a canoe after gathering possessions from their flooded homes along the Hudson River in Lake Luzerne, N.Y.

FORT EDWARD, N.Y. (AP) — High water on the upper Hudson River is pushing back the start of PCB dredging past the mid-May target.

Heavy rains in northern New York have raised the river to near or above flood levels, making it unsafe to dredge. General Electric Co. hopes to start the second phase of the federal Superfund cleanup before the end of the month, when water levels could be down and the adjacent Champlain Canal open.

GE plants upriver discharged 1.3 million pounds of polychlorinated biphenyls until 1977. PCBs are potentially cancer-causing chemicals that can build up in fish over time, posing a risk to those who eat them.

Fairfield, Conn.-based GE oversaw a test phase of the cleanup in 2009 and paused operations for a year to give scientists time to assess its success.